1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stereoscopic video distribution system, a stereoscopic video distribution method, a stereoscopic video distribution apparatus, a stereoscopic video viewing system, a stereoscopic video viewing method, and a stereoscopic video viewing apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Along with the progress of encoding techniques for compressing digital video signals, the record of compressed video signals to an optical disk have enabled implementation of an optical disk apparatus with excellent searchability and operability. Since such an optical disk apparatus records video as a digital signal, the optical disk apparatus is free from deterioration in dubbing compared with recording of an analog video signal, and achieves a higher reliability with its non-contact optical recording and reproduction.
Examples of encoding methods for compressing data of such digital video signal include the MPEG (Moving Picture coding Experts Group) method. This MPEG compression method achieves improved compression efficiency as compared with intra compression methods such as motion JPEG, but the MPEG compression method is still restricted by the following constrained conditions. For example, since the MPEG compression method uses a motion-compensated prediction in the temporal direction, the MPEG compression method allows searching only in units of videos consisting of group of pictures (GOPs), and in order to access a disk, it is necessary to initially access one picture made by the intraframe compression. In view of this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-260988 suggests an improvement to a data format on an optical disk.
The data format of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-260988 is no more than a file format in which a two-dimensional flat video is stored as a file. When a stereoscopic video is recorded as a file, it is necessary to employ a method of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-166651 for separately displaying a right-eye video and a left-eye video respectively based on a first field and a second field of a TV signal and showing field videos to the respective eyes with polarizing eyeglasses.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No 2001-167180 describes a method for storing a stereoscopic image on a server and displaying the stored stereoscopic image. However, this is used to show a stereoscopic advertisement by displaying the image while rotating the image. A method using a plurality of cameras described in Published Japanese Translation of PCT Application No. 2003-532346 also relates to a mere improvement in showing a stereoscopic image by rotating the image. On the other hand, Published Japanese Translation of PCT Application No. 2002-517840 relates to a method for generating a motion character within a server and describes a type of uploading of a three-dimensional image to a server by using right and left images. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-101329 describes a medical three-dimensional image rendering processing method during remote control operation, but Laid-Open No. 2006-101329 is silent on signal formats and the like according to which a stereoscopic image is distributed by a server. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-175566 indicates that a conversion from 2D video to 3D video is carried out by video information transmission means, but Laid-Open No. 2005-175566 is silent on specific conversion methods and the like. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-31665 and Published Japanese Translation of PCT Application No. 2007-500883 mention a method for realizing a stereoscopic virtually-realized space, but they do not relate to the system for viewing stereoscopic video contents and the signal format, which are explained in this application.
Various methods such as the followings have been suggested as a signal format for viewing stereoscopic video: a method for respectively MPEG-compressing and transferring right and left videos; a method for dividing a screen into both sides; and a method for dividing a screen into an upper portion and a lower portion. Accordingly, many methods are coexisting for an original video of a distributed video content, and it has been difficult to unify video distribution servers which are owned by various companies and provide services so as to unify the servers into a particular type.
Therefore, it has been desired to achieve a method adapted to integrally handle processing, including even billing processing, of these plurality of servers of different types.
Even in a case where a video distribution source server owns stereoscopic video contents, user's viewing environment may not be necessarily ready for stereoscopic viewing. When a stereoscopic video based on a parallactic video is distributed, the stereoscopic video may appear as double images on an ordinary two-dimensional video viewing TV. Even a stereoscopic viewing-enabled TV results in the same problem when the TV setting is set to a flat video viewing mode
Further, in a viewing menu of contents, a stereoscopic viewing-enabled environment and a flat video-only environment respectively require distribution of different menus, i.e., a menu with 3D contents and a menu without 3D contents. With regard to this issue, there is a problem in that the above cannot be achieved unless the state of viewing environment is recognized.
With regard to multi-angle video distribution, there is a problem in that, e.g., it takes too much time to respond to an angle-switching instruction given by an apparatus and contents cannot be viewed upon angle-rotation.
When widget information is viewed in such a manner that the widget information is overlaid on a TV screen or the TV screen is divided, and the widget information originally made for the two-dimensional video is now displayed in a stereoscopic video as it is, the user may feel awkward in viewing the widget information whose position in a depth and protruding direction is always fixed to a default position. For example, when the entire video is protruding, there is a problem in that the user feels awkward in seeing the widget information appearing to be positioned at a deeper side.
Further, most of the normal video distribution contents are generally made of flat videos, but users who have stereoscopic viewing environment desire a method for viewing the contents upon converting two-dimensional video into three-dimensional video. In addition, it has been desired to achieve a method for varying the amount of protrusion of video with consideration paid to viewing safety such as eye fatigue.
Likewise, it has been desired to achieve a method for viewing contents upon converting, into three dimension, two-dimensional contents personally recorded by the user with a movie and the like. In this respect, there is a problem in that a private content uploaded by the user can be viewed by the general-public.